Friday, August 28, 2015

Iraq snapshot

Friday, August 28, 2015. Chaos and violence continue, persecution of Sunnis continue, Barack cooks the intel or does he have it cooked for him?, and much more.

To the land of Haider al-Abadi's Iraq.

Remember him?

The US government installed him this time last year as prime minister.

Iraq was in flames.

US President Barack Obama had already called the Islamic State "jv" (junior varsity -- meaning not good enough for varsity).

And he really wasn't wrong.

Some leap on him for that.

But the Islamic State was -- and still is -- junior varsity for Iraq.

Meaning when you go through the problems Iraq faces, the crises, the Islamic State really isn't the most pressing.

That's why, June 19, 2014, Barack insisted that the only solution to the crises in Iraq was a political solution -- you know, the only thing they've refused to work on.

A political solution is needed because the country is dividing, yes, along sectarian fault lines but also because if you are a Kurd in today's Iraq there is a good chance you are persecuted and if you are a Sunni in today's Iraq there is a great chance you are persecuted.

Head of the National Coalition (Watania List), Iyad Allawi said the
government's action to cancel positions is austerity measures and not
reforms.

He said in a televised interview tonight, "the government austerity
measures and not a reform, warning at the same time to circumvent the
demands of the demonstrations or the political agreement document,
stressing that the real reform is the agreement that produced the three
presidencies (the Republic, the government and parliament)."

He added that the Iraqi Constitution has been shredded by the lack of
implementation of the agreed political agreement before the formation of
the government, ".

Yesterday, Alsumaria reported Allawi issued a statement declaring support for the Constitution and for the Iraqi citizens who have protested for the last five weeks demaning and end to currption and their rights.

Iraqi President Fuad Masum said Wednesday Iraq's
constitution should be amended rather than bypassed, in an apparent
criticism of the premier's plan to abolish the constitutionally mandated
vice presidency.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has
ordered Iraq's three vice presidential positions to be scrapped and
their funding reallocated as part of a reform drive aimed at curbing
rampant corruption and government waste in response to weeks of
protests.

Masum called on his website for "protecting the constitution... and not bypassing it and not stopping working with it."

It's funny because John Kirby and other US State Dept spokespersons avoid the issue -- the issue of the law and the Constitution and the objections being raised. They just offer support.

Even the hideous Victoria Nuland -- spokesperson during Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State -- attempted to cloak her ruthless imperialism with the law.

Not the latest spokespeople.

Of course, Le Figaro and Iraq Times are convinced that the focus should be not on Haider but on his invisible man, his hidden man, Deputy Director Nofal Hassan Abu Barns who fled Iraq in the early 90s and went from a refugee at a refugee camp to, boom, CIA territory and the United States. According to those two outlets, the White House insisted to Haider that his becoming prime minister hinged on whether or not he agreed to take Nofal on as deputy (or handler).

Senior military and intelligence officials have inappropriately pressured U.S. terrorism analysts to alter their assessments about the strength of the self-proclaimed Islamic State,
three sources familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast. Analysts
have been pushed to portray the group as weaker than the analysts
believe it actually is, according to these sources, and to paint an
overly rosy picture about how well the U.S.-led effort to defeat the
group is going.Reports that have been deemed too pessimistic about the efficacy of
the American-led campaign, or that have questioned whether a
U.S.-trained Iraqi military can ultimately defeat ISIS, have been sent
back down through the chain of command or haven’t been shared with
senior policymakers, several analysts alleged.

And that comes as Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo (New York Times) reported mid-week, "The Pentagon’s inspector general is investigating allegations that
military officials have skewed intelligence assessments about the United
States-led campaign in Iraq
against the Islamic State to provide a more optimistic account of
progress, according to several officials familiar with the inquiry."

Why would they cook the intelligence?

Maybe because Barack's plan or 'plan' is a failure.

Maybe because bombing Iraq hasn't helped Iraq.

Maybe because training Iraqi forces hasn't helped one bit. Not in the years and years and years of training.

This week saw two major reports on military actions in Iraq.

Thursday, a suicide bomber has struck in Ramadi. BBC News reported that the bomber took his own life as well as the lives of Iraqi General
Abdel Rahman Abu Ragheef and Brigadier Safeen Abdel Majeed as well as
three other people.

And to think, the three months and counting operation was getting so
little attention but today, thanks to that awful news, Haider al-Abadi's
failed mission is back in the news.

The extremist group gave different account about the
attack, saying that it was carried out by four of its suicide bombers
driving explosive-laden vehicles and two supporting militants with heavy
machine guns who targeted the main headquarters of the provincial
operations command in north of Ramadi, the statement said.All of its six militants were killed along with killing dozens of
officers and soldiers, including Staff Major General Abdul-Rahaman Abu
Raghif, deputy commander of Anbar provincial Operations Command, and
Staff Brig. Gen. Sefien Abdul-Majid, commander of the Army's Tenth
Division, said the group which the authenticity of its statement could
not be independently verified.The statement gave the names of the IS attackers, whom their names
showed that they are from Tunisia, Gaza Strip, Tajikistan, Germany,
Saudi Arab and Syria.

The forces under Haider's control are noted for repeat failures. In
fact, their only real 'success' tends to be in the pillaging aspect they
try to down play.

There's been no success with US training or US direct arming. And the Kurds have been kept at arms' length with the White House and State Dept insisting the rule of law must be respected -- that is except when the rule of law is the Iraqi Constitution and Haider al-Abadi's trampling it.

Or when the rule of law is international law and the Leahy Amendment which forbid the US to provide weapons to a government that uses those weapons on its own people -- and the civilians of Falluja have been bombed by the Iraqi military every day since January 2014.

But we all look away from that, don't we?

And if we can will ourselves to ignore that, we can certainly will ourselves to pretend Barack's bombings have been a success and that the Islamic State is on the run in Iraq, right?

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